Prepare for food shortages, warns Streeting

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Add us as preferred source !Mr Streeting cuts a ribbon in a factory, with other dignitaries looking on Wes Streeting, the Defence Secretary, made his comments while opening the Rheinmetall UK Gun Hall in Telford Danielle Sheridan Defence Editor Show biography !Danielle Sheridan As The Telegraph's first female Defence Editor, Danielle has broken countless exclusives on the British military. She has reported from Ukraine since Putin's invasion, laying bare the extent of Russia's depravity. Updated 22 October 2026 5:00pm BST Published 22 October 2026 2:40pm BST Wes Streeting has urged the public to prepare for food shortages caused by cyber attacks. On Thursday, the Defence Secretary announced that the Government had launched its “national resilience conversation”, asking Britons to be prepared for “everyday risks” that could disrupt supply chains. Members of the public have been urged to maintain “be ready” kits for emergencies, which the Government says should include three days’ worth of non-perishable food and bottled water, an FM radio and blankets. Mr Streeting made the comments as websites across the world shut down following the discovery of a vulnerability in PHP, a crucial piece of website architecture that left them vulnerable to cyber attack. Speaking in Shropshire, the Defence Secretary said that, in the face of hybrid warfare and grey-zone threats, the public should take national resilience as seriously as national defence. He was speaking at the opening of the Rheinmetall Telford Gun Hall, which will make gun barrels for tanks in Britain for the first time in 20 years. !Large-calibre gun barrels will be produced in the UK for the first time in two decades at the Rheinmetall Telford Gun Hall Large-calibre gun barrels will be produced in the UK for the first time in two decades at the Rheinmetall Telford Gun Hall He was speaking alongside Gen Sir Roly Walker, the Chief of the General Staff, who said recently that a “frank conversation” between the Government and the British people about security and the threat of war was needed. Mr Streeting said: “We are asking households and businesses: are they prepared, are they ready and do they know how they will respond in the event of everyday challenges that might manifest themselves? “But we’ll also need to take the country a step further and ask them: are they prepared for increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks on our businesses? Are they prepared for the eventuality that there may be disruptions on essential supply chains caused by hostile state actors or terrorists? “How would we cope if the payment systems at the local supermarket went down? Those are the sorts of our everyday challenges we could face, and it’s right that we ask the country to be ready for those things.” Britain’s food supply is heavily globalised, with roughly 45-50 per cent imported from Spain, the Netherlands, France, South Africa, Colombia, Brazil and elsewhere. In September, the National Audit Office said disruption to Britain’s food supply was “becoming more likely and potentially more severe” because of extreme weather events, cyber attacks and disease. The NAO called for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to work with businesses and households to draw up emergency plans that could be used in the event of shortages. On Thursday, 32 Government services went offline and four were partially unavailable as Whitehall worked to address the cyber security issues. The PHP flaw allows hackers to potentially infiltrate web traffic between websites and databases, which could enable them to expose passwords, credit card details and more. Garages across Britain were forced to use pen and paper to record MOT test results, while the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s online platform was taken down. The National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ, has told website owners to take their systems offline if they are unable to respond to the problem immediately. The return of large-calibre weapon manufacturing at the Rheinmetall Telford Gun Hall marked an “important step” in Britain being prepared for modern warfare, Gen Sir Roly said. !Rheinmetall Gun Hall The Ministry of Defence says the gun hall will restore national capability The hall will manufacture gun barrels and breech blocks – the metal blocks that seal the rear end of a barrel – for both 120mm and 155mm weapon systems. This includes the 72 remote-controlled howitzers that the Ministry of Defence ordered from Rheinmetall at a cost of £1bn earlier this year. The barrels could also be used for the Challenger 3, Britain’s fourth-generation battle tank, in the future. Join the conversation Show 1388 comments The Telegraph values your comments but kindly requests all posts are on topic, constructive and respectful. Please review our commenting policy. Copy link

The Telegraph values your comments but kindly requests all posts are on topic, constructive and respectful. Please review our commenting policy. Related Topics Telford, Defence industry, Tank, Ministry of Defence, Wes Streeting

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